President Obama, the Decider, and the "Collective Failure to Make Hard Choices"

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

There doesn't seem to have been one statement from President Barack Obama's inauguration speech for the mainstream media as a whole to latch onto. However, one phrase that made it into the lead of The New York Times' story on the speech struck me as well. Carl Hulse wrote that Obama "called on Americans to join him in confronting what he described as an economic crisis caused by greed but also 'our collective failure to make hard choices.'"

In hearing that phrase, I was reminded of how I felt when I listened to former President George W. Bush make his final address to the American people last week. When I heard him say the following:

"You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."

I couldn't help but shake my head. It is true that I don't agree with the bulk of the Bush Administration's decisions. However, I also don't agree that Bush himself was willing to make them. Instead, he let Cheney and others tell him what to do.

I applaud President Obama for calling out our "collective failure to make hard choices." No doubt one man that truly embodies this failure is former President Bush.

However, "collective" means we all share in the blame. The American people never expected President Bush to make his own tough decisions. With a sigh of relief, we can break that nasty habit starting today. I hope the new president realizes that holding lawbreakers accountable is part of breaking that habit.

I think, more than anything, the supposed wistfulness of Bush's final words to the press and the American people was a product of the belated realization that, though other people made tough decisions for him, he was "The Decider" for the past eight years. Whether he pays the price for these decisions is anyone's guess, but we can only hope he finally sees the magnitude of the "mistakes" to which he agreed.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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